so they built in a switch to turn [the relativity compensators] off, if they needed to.
They didn't.
IIRC the had to turn it on first.
Not sure if you're contradicting me. Obviously they had to be on to be turned off, but the story I heard (and I'm sure that a quick trip to Wiki would disabuse me if I've been a victim of a Chinese Whisperer[1]) was that they were put in as default because enough people thought they
should be on, but because of enough people with doubts about it, had a disabling command ready to kick in if the initial tests of the system showed that they shouldn't.
I've no doubt that they've had the ability to patch the software (or even firmware), and of course send up later satellites in the constellation (and any replacements) with the "it works this way" situation firmed up, so I don't think we're in any danger of someone doing a The World Is Not Enough-type manoeuvre and making the system go all wrong.
Exhibit C: Quantum theory and the theory of relativity are contradictory to one another and can't both be true at the same time.
I think of it as similar to "A: Light is a particle; B: Light is a wave; C: Light can not be
both a particle and a wave". Insofar as we're pretty satisfied that we know that light is
neither a particle
or a wave, but that quantum thing that gives particle-like results when looked at one way and wave-like results when looked at another.
So, when looking at the (next level out) set of ideas that "The world is Quantum" or "The world is relativistic", it's likely that "The world is <A. N. Other>", where looking at the <A. N. Other> theory makes the world look Quantum in some circumstances, and yet look relativistic in others...
It's all layers upon layers of understanding, on the way (probably in futility) of discovering the
ToE...
["God does not play dice..."] is often erronosly used in an effort to show that Einstien did not agree with Quantum Theory, which is wrong.
Interestingly, it's also used to show that he believed in God. Similarly erroneously, as far as I can gather.
Oh, and I'm still (as prior discussions on these boards have already painted me) a devout Determinist. The old Hidden Variable version of Quantum Theory (or whatever it is that's
actually governing the world). And I find it even more likely that the arguments given against this state of affairs do not actually contradict reality, if the apparent disproofs are not counting upon upon QT (and Relativity) being Not The Entire Truth. Although that fortuitous link between two of my conceptualised 'truths' (which gives me the wiggle room to consider either, knowing all along that there's no conceptual proof) has never actually been factored into my general stubbornness regarding the one, or the pondering that the other might be the case.
Finally, IIRC, Einstein considered it "his gretest mistake", including the Cosmological Constant (or whatever he called it, I think I'm mixing up my terminology, in my haste to not be ninjaed with further replies while logic-checking) to keep the Universe from collapsing, before we knew how the universe was expanding... But if Dark Energy is true, we might well have something very similar
anyway. The chances that it's the same thing is small, but if Einstein had more than just the vague idea of "it keeps the Universe from collapsing" in mind, when he thought of it, he might have been onto the right track. Sorry, being a bit rushed in my explanations, so I can bet my bottom dollar that someone's going to tell me I've misremembered this.
(Karlito, yup, they do. I type not-so-slow, but I waste it on too many words for too much constructiveness, I feel.
)
[1] Like a Horse Whisperer, but more tonal.